In non-conference action Tuesday night against the Adrian Maples, the Onsted Wildcats boys basketball team made a point to go to its two big guys early, throughout and in the closing moments of the game. That strategy paid off when a close one-point game at the half turned into a 10-point victory for Onsted, 56-46.

Adrian (1-7) used full-court pressure early against the Wildcats (4-4), and then scattered the pressure later in the game until needing to return to it late in the fourth quarter as they scrambled to get some quick points after Onsted had built a double-digit lead. The early pressure seemed to be boom or bust for the Maples. At times the pressure forced some backcourt turnovers that Adrian could turn into easy baskets, and there were other times when Onsted was able to pass the ball ahead of the pressure, giving the Wildcats some easy transition baskets.

Often times it was one half of Onsted's two towers who was the benefactor of those transition baskets. Six-foot-8 Devin Louden used some of his athleticism to run the floor when the Wildcats were able to pass the ball out of the Maple pressure. Just as Adrian was stopping one of Onsted's guards from going in on a lay-up, Louden was sprinting down the other side before angling in near the bottom block, taking a lob pass into his outstretched fingertips and then slamming in down through the hoop.

If, however, the Wildcats weren't sprinting out in transition, they were setting the ball up on the wing and letting the other half of the towers, 6-foot-10 Austin Davis, use his size to get position and his increasingly efficient post moves to score. Of Onsted's 28 first-half points, Davis and Louden accounted for 24.

"We did a better job of getting the ball inside tonight than we had been," said Onsted coach Brad Maska. "We were able to get the ball up the floor in transition at times, but when we didn't, we were able to execute much better than we have been, and that starts with getting the ball inside to our bigs in a position where they can score."

The Wildcats would get the crowd buzzing with an athletic dunk, but the Maples were trading a few possessions at a 3-to-2 rate, keeping the score close. Kevin Woodmore had the hot hand for the Maples in the first half, hitting three of their five 3-pointers and draining both of his free throws to have 11 points at the break.

The second half saw much of the same from the Wildcats on offense, but also more effort on defense. In particular, finding the Adrian shooters and contesting the shots. It was the defensive pressure and length of the defenders in contesting shots that the Wildcats used to limit Adrian to only six points in the third quarter, including keeping Woodmore out of the scorebook.

Page 2 of 2 - "Onsted did a nice job of contesting shots in the second half and forcing us to take jump shots," said Adrian coach Phil Green. "We didn't move the ball as well as we should have, but they also have the length to alter an offense."

Woodmore was able to find the long range for two more triples in the last quarter, but it was too late for the Maples to mount any comeback. Onsted was able to put the game away despite a scary free-throw shooting performance in the fourth. The Wildcats only made 3 of 15 attempts and finished the game 4-for-20 from the line.